Tuesday, April 1, 2014

                                             Look Mom, I'm Driving!!!
                                                Sister S. and I in the Knome garden
                                             Me standing awkwardly in the knome garden.

Hey, Hey, Hey, Mar. 17, 2014

Hey hey hey,  
So this week was a really great one!  It has been fantastic weather!  Seriously!  The sun has been out, and although its still chilly, it has been generally pretty warm.  One day we even had to take off our coats because we were sweating so much.  So hopefully the good weather will stay again for this week, but who knows.  So the big news for this week is that we got the car for 2 days!  haha.  It was so great!  We got the car on Wednesday after District Meeting, and we were able to keep it and use it until friday afternoon.  Man oh man.  It is a little different driving here!  It took me a little bit to get used to it, but now its fine.  The roads are just so little and so bendy haha, its tricky sometimes!  Seriously, imagine driving on a sidewalk through miles and miles of just green fields.  And they are just bendy and windy like crazy.  Thats what I was driving on this week.  No joke, the roads are TINY.  But its great.  Cause it gave me a little bit of practice.  Now I just need to buckle down and find time to really study for my theory test.  I need to take it soon, but I just haven't really got time to study for it.  But we survived, and it was great!!! haha.  Since we had the car, we were able to go to some of those other villages that we have been really wanting to go to but we haven't been able to.  We went to this little village called Alford, and it is interesting.  It felt like I was in Utah.  Weird.  But as we were knocking, we came across this house, and it was so interesting HAHAHAH.  Okay (so side note real quick-everyone here in England names their houses.  Yep, you heard me right.  They name their houses.  Everyone does it) so we come across this house and it is decorated to the max with gnomes, it had gnomes EVERYWHERE, and it was named GNOME COTTAGE.  So we were pretty interested, so we decided to knock it.  We knocked into a man named-RON THE GNOME. He is like 70 years old or something, and he dresses up as a gnome.  He is famous.  Haha I guess for the recent movie Gnomeo and juliet, he was like in charge of all the gnomes and things.  He has 1760 gnomes in his house and garden (backyard), and he has them all named.  Apparently he is in charge of the G.B.E (The gnome british empire). hahaha.  We were like cracking up.  Oh my gosh it was the funniest thing ever.  And so he gave us his business card, and he had us sign his visitors book, and he let us into his garden to see all of his gnomes.  THERE WASN'T ANY SPACE ON THE GROUND TO WALK.  There were gnomes literally everywhere.  Haha we got some good pictures, but it was pretty funny.  L is doing so good.  Seriously, I feel like a proud mother everytime I''m around her.  Unfortunately we will have to push her baptism back a few weeks, she is having a harder time kicking the tea then she expected.  Dang tea!!  But she is still so excited for her baptism.  She wants it to be real, and meaningful, not just to have a good day.  She gets the gospel, and thats why I love her.  She lets the gospel change her, and it truly has.  Its amazing.  She is so great.  She confirms her own appointments, she confirms church (even though she has her own car which is so great), and she gets the greatest insights from the Book of Mormon.  Also, she has made really good friends with some people from the branch, so that is great.  Tonight we are having a FHE with her in Angie's home (Angie is a branch missionary, and they have become really good friends).  L is so great.  We are kinda bummed about her baptism, because we don't know if both of us will be here for her baptism or not, but it doesn't matter.  She is getting baptised, and that's all that matters!!  And she is already doing missionary work, she is trying to get her mom to come out with her. haha we'll see how that goes.  N is doing great.  He is just so  funny.  But we are still working with him.  But other than that, we are just working hard to find new investigators.  We will continue doing a bunch of finding this week, since last week we had to drop a few of our investigators.  Things are great and I'm having a blast!  I love Sister S, and I hope that we can stay together another transfer!  It feels like I'm serving with my best friend, she is great!  I hope all is well back home.  
Love you all!!

March 10, 2014

Hiya! 
 I hope you all had a great week!  I'm sorry I'm a little short on time today, but I'll try and write down as much as I can remember!  This week nothing really new happened.  Same old same old haha, except.....drum roll please.................L IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!1 DAJDFLKAJEROQWERJAKDJL;FJ!!!  We had set a date for her to recieve her answer by, and that day was on friday, March 7th.  And so when we went to teach her and were talking with her, she told us that she believed us.  That everything we had taught her she thought was true.  We had helped her to recognize that we don't just all of a sudden wake up one day feeling different, that rarely happens.  But that answers usually come gradually over time.  And one day we can look back and realize the change that had occured.  And that is exactly what has happened with L.  We have been working with her tons, and she has already overcome loads of opposition with her fiance and his family causing contention, and so she basically had to choose between God and her fiance, and she chose God.  So her wedding is officially off, and she is officially getting baptized.  She is so amazing.  She is only 28, haha so its weird cause its like she is one of my sisters or one of my friends.  Thats like what it feels like whenever we are over there.  And she has all of these really cool hidden talents.  haha like she breathes fire!!  Yep you heard me right!  She took lessons to be one of those cool people that breathes and works with fire.  She is going to teach us next week.  And she is a trapeez (me kno goode wit speelin) lady.  hahahah she is so cool!  And the branch loves her!  Our branch president loves her, and she is just so great!  I'm so excited for her to get baptized!  She will get baptized on March 21st, and I know that she is so ready for this.  She told us that this gospel has given her perspective.  Its helped her through this hard time in her life, and that 2 months ago she was completely different.  And that is exactly what the gospel does to people.  It changes them, if they let it.  It gives people perspective, that this life isn't it.  That there is more.  And it helps people through their toughest trials.  Thats the beauty of the message of Christ- We are not alone, and we don't have to go through it alone.  I love being a missionary and being able to share this great message with others.  To litrally see the change in people's life is amazing.  Its the best thing that I could be doing. 
ANYWAYS.  I had to give another talk in church yesterday, it was 20 minutes long!  Gosh.  Since the branch is so small they run out of people to do things. haha.  but its fine, I mean I have LOADS of free time to write a 20 minute talk, so no big deal, right? ha.....ha.  Yesterday was really really warm, but its cold again today, no surprise.:)  Things are going great!  I truly love Sister S!!!!  It feels like I'm serving with my best friend!  We get along so well, its weird.  But really, she's great, and I love it here!  Every night we pray that we won't get transferred!  haha.  But who knows.
President called us again this morning and told us how he was so proud of little old louth hahah.  Things are looking up here in Louth!  Now we just got to go out and find more people!  I hope you all have a great week!  Love ya!
Love,
Sister Staheli